


Verzweiflung - <Despair>

by War_of_the_Words



Series: Player 1 [2]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: And angsty, Blood, Death, Dissociation, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Get-Together Fic, Heists, I'm so sorry, Ice Cream, Magic, Murder, OOC, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Random Updates, Riddles, Slow Build, Snow, burn so slow its no longer happening, crappy babysitters, heist notes, not as much magic as i planned, oh well, the seemingly plotless shenanigans are over, things are about to get real heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-31 17:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 18,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8587414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/War_of_the_Words/pseuds/War_of_the_Words
Summary: The small detective always fell into the worst of situations, and so did the white clad thief. This fact made Shinichi feel a bit better about the mess he was dragging Kaito into, even though he kind of got dragged into Kaito's mess first. (Summary subject to change)





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I started writing for NaNoWriMo (but I gave up and stopped writing for that) cause I'm trash. Also, at first I started reading this pairing as a joke, but now i'm invested and now I've just gotten desperate for more and started writing it (finally). Anyway, enjoy. I have like 3 chapters of this written and I don't really know if I want to finish this or not. Let me know what you think. 
> 
> Betaed by the lovely Player 2~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *casually sets up the rest of the story really poorly*
> 
> Edit 4/5/2017: omg going back and rereading this chapter makes me see how much my writing has changed since November???????????????????????????????????????

Shinichi sighed. He had been stuck as Conan for five years before Haibara had found a permanent antidote for him and by that point he had given up.

He had thrown himself into destroying the Black Organization around the end of year two. During the third year, his secret had come out and the Mouri's kicked him out, not wanting him to endanger them any longer. His teacher at school looked at him oddly for the rest of the time he was with them, yet brought him upper level work to do on his own, as long as he still took the same assessments as everyone else. 

At the end of year four, he had completed all of the high-school curriculum. Which gave him the time to spend with the detective boys and work on taking down the organization. 

Over the course of year five, the detective boys, now in middle school, finally discovered what "Conan" had been hiding from them all this time. They, thankfully, mostly understood why he had hidden it, but it still took them awhile to forgive him.

Though they refused to acknowledge it, Shinichi knew that the detective boys would do anything if “Conan” asked them too, which is why he didn’t feel bad about asking them to help him out some with taking down the black organization so he could return. They only did little things for him, like tailing a suspicious person, that they were very unlikely to be caught doing. 

He decided that this was necessary. He knew that with the few people that knew of his true identity was not enough to easily take down the group that forced him into hiding. 

This revelation made him feel bad, because every person that learned of his true identity and what happened would have to watch their backs 24/7 and that worried him. The detective boys should not have to worry about killers at their backs during school or while they slept, the police force were in enough danger by simply being police officers, and his parents should not have had to worry about both his father’s editors and their son’s “killers.” But he constantly reminded himself that all of these people had asked to be let in on the secret. Asked to know why Conan jumped at every little noise he heard. They had asked, so he had reluctantly told and brought them all into the mess that was his life.

Eventually a certain Moonlight Magician entered the scene and he guesses that’s where the story truly starts. 

Later on, he found out through the thief that they had met before the Conan incident, yet had not actually seen one another. The thief told him about the time that he attempted to steal a clock tower and got shot at by a person in a helicopter; eventually KID guessed it must have been an organization member. KID’s face was priceless when Shinichi sheepishly admitted that it was him that had shot at the thief that night, “I didn’t know it was you!” (KID was not happy and proceeded to prank Shinichi for the next few days, no matter how much he apologized).

The two often messed around with each other at heists, and that tended to carry over into the real world as well. 

But Shinichi’s getting ahead of himself. It truly started near the end of year four. At a heist of the Queen’s Emerald. 

He was chasing KID, that much he was sure of. KID had grabbed the Emerald and quickly made his way to the roof, just like any other heist. Shinichi would later admit that this was the most normal, and therefore boring, heist of the thief’s that he had ever attended (and KID would sigh and then plan an extravagant heist just for Shinichi). 

When Shinichi got to the roof KID was already there waiting; gem already stashed away, probably ready to be returned. 

“So, we meet again, Tantei-kun.”

“KID. Return the Emerald and leave.”

KID shook his head, “You never learn, do you? I can't just hand the Emerald back over. That would mean the end of my career.” 

As they stood on the roof-top in silence after KID’s remark, Shinichi heard rustling behind him. “KID go!”

KID looked at him oddly and hesitated. Because of this, the shooter that had hidden himself in the shadows took aim and fired. 

When Shinichi heard the gun through the silencer, he panicked. No one was supposed to get hurt at KID heists, not even the thief himself. He rushed forward just fast enough that KID took a step back and the bullet struck his own shoulder instead of the thief’s heart. 

“Tantei-kun. Why… would you do that?” 

“Because you're important to a bunch of people. Even people that think they hate you probably don't so… it’s worth it to get just another scar than to lose a person.”

“Tantei-kun…”

When Shinichi collapsed from the blood loss (curse you tiny Conan body) the only thing he could see was the thief’s worried face.


	2. The beginning of Kaito's demise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito makes his newest mistake: pretending to be Conan's family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I know i said this was going to be weeklyish updates so this is like 5 days early but im also trying to stay about 4 chapters ahead and without this posted I'm 5, so I need an excuse to write more;;;
> 
> By the way, the Detective Conan dub is absolutely hilarious to watch after watching all the sub I sat for like 4 hours just laughing because of how stupid it was. Like, they have Jimmy and Rachel instead of Shinichi and Ran and I was just dead. They also changed the detective boys and all the detectives and inspectors. I was texting player 2 to just kill me cause I actually watched it.
> 
> Anyway, betaed, as always, by the lovely Player 2~  
> There is some angst coming in some future chapters cause i wrote that last night and I wasn't even planning it, whoops.

When he regained consciousness, he could see a ceiling. It was another hospital. He could recognize it from the constant beeping and the hum of the machines, much less the smell. For some reason, he could hear the soft breathing of someone asleep nearby.

He struggled to sit up and see who it was, but when he managed it he could not place the person in his room.

The man had soft features, almost feminine like, and a kind of tousled hair that screamed bed head. He was sitting up in the chair next to the bed with his head fallen forward and his eyes closed. His hand was slightly extended out toward the bed, almost like he had been trying to keep a hand on Conan.

Shinichi wondered if this was KID. If it was, it was probably his civilian persona, so he wouldn't pry too much. He did want to earn the thief’s trust, not force it. Though, he guessed he had already earned it if KID was sitting by his hospital bed out of disguise.

The door creaked slightly and he whipped his head 180 degrees around to see who the intruder was, only to wince in pain.

The intruder (Nurse? Doctor?) walked toward him slowly, “It would be best if you didn't move so forcefully for now, Edogawa-san. You're already lucky that your cousin got you here when he did. We almost lost you.”

Shinichi, well, Conan from her point of view-looked up at her. “How so?” he asked, “The shot shouldn't have been fatal.” 

“Boys your age shouldn't think about those things,” she sighed. “It wasn't a fatal location, yes. But you disappeared from the KID heist and almost 2 hours later your cousin there brought you in all bandaged up. You've got a great family. He was extremely panicked for you.”  

“Really,” Shinichi deadpanned.  

The doctor, as that's what Shinichi had determined at this point, nodded, “Yes. You were even luckier that we still had enough blood of your blood type on hand. We only had a few left after something happened earlier this week…,” the doctor trailed off.

Shinichi nodded to show he understood, “I should thank him when he wakes up.”

The doctor silently looked at the two, “Rest up.” And with that she was gone.

Shinichi found it odd that the doctor did not explain anything in detail and just left. But he decided that was a thought for another day as he started to doze off again.

 ---------1412--------- 

When KID awoke it was to a commotion down the hall. He could recognize the voice he was hearing from a mile away, Inspector Nakamori. Affectionately known as the third-rate-inspector or (sometimes) Nakamori-keibu or more often than not just keibu.

He looked down at the tiny-tantei laying on the bed next to him in pity.The poor boy was about to be questioned on what had happened at the heist and how he got hurt (again!) at a KID heist. However, it seemed the tiny-tantei had fallen asleep, again KID guessed he should say because there was no way that the boy had moved that much in his sleep.

The door barged open and with it the main people of the KID task force, Hakuba, Inspector Nakamori, and surprisingly a few of the division one officers. Well, not really surprising, considering it was a homicide attempt, even if said intent was on the thief originally but that seems beside the point.

It seemed, however, that the door had awoken the young detective on the bed. Due to the said detective stirring all eyes turned to him, except, of course, the two men that knew him, Hakuba and Inspector Nakamori.

“Kuroba. We were told his cousin was in here, we assumed that was Shinichi, considering family relations.”

“Well, as you can see Hakuba, that is not the case. Besides, I’m technically not blood so there’s no need to worry.”

Throughout the conversation, he noticed the small detective was listening in. _Sneaky tantei…_

The suspicious look only deepened when Inspector Nakamori spoke up. “Kaito-kun… Aoko said you had a family emergency and that’s why you couldn’t come over for dinner last night. Is this the family emergency?”

KID, now known as Kaito Kuroba to the room, nodded. “The rest of our family is out of the country right now so I had to step in.”

And with that fairly simple statement, which Kaito was proud of himself for, all of the people in the room, except, of course, for the people that knew the truth, accepted the fact that Kaito Kuroba was currently Conan Edogawa’s guardian, at least until a legal adult in their family entered the country.

However, a look from one Conan Edogawa told him that this would be a difficult role to keep up; especially since the boy was constantly in some kind of trouble: may it be solving a murder, getting kidnapped, or maybe even almost getting killed.

 ---------1412---------

And so the adventure that sparked their eventual teaming up began. These moments were the slowest in Shinichi’s opinion, but he also understands the fact that people want to know to know every bit along the way, for its simple human nature. As he prepared himself for the next part of his journey, he sat in the lonely hospital room (he was surprised that KID, well Kaito, had gone for the upcharge of a private room) with a lowly Phantom Thief that simply wanted to be part of the up-and-coming detective’s plan. But before he could be part of the plan he had to be in on the secret, and there was no way that was happening anywhere near anyone that didn’t already know.


	3. The Beginning of the End (A.K.A. the actual plot actually emerges!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai and Shin have a chat while things happen in the black org.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter, but I have like 5 projects to do and midterms fast approaching. Anyway, this has to be one of my favorite chapters out of what I've written so far. Hope y'all enjoy!

Days later, “Conan” was finally released from the hospital into one Kaito Kuroba’s hands, along with strict instructions of “no horseplay, no over-exerting yourself, rest, and for goodness sakes make sure that boy eats plenty of food,” from the Doctors and Nurses.

Shinichi walked to the train station with Kaito (Well he says walked, it was more like a piggy-back ride because Kaito is a paranoid motherfucker when it comes to “Conan”). When they reached the station, Shinichi was surprised when the teen(?) he had been released to simply asked for two tickets to Ekoda, as it was not far from where the KID task force was rumored to have its headquarters.

Wait, scratch that, Shinichi wasn’t surprised at all that _the_ Kaitou KID would live close to where the task force was, in fact the thief probably even found it hilarious that he was hiding directly under their noses without them noticing. Shinichi felt like he wouldn’t even be surprised if he found out that Kaito lived next door to Inspector Nakamori, considering the inspector had mentioned that Kaito was supposed to have dinner with him and his daughter. Wait a second… _did that mean Kaito’s girlfriend was Inspector Nakamori’s daughter?_ If he _was,_ the Nakamori family really needs to look further into their friends…

Anyway, the train was quiet for once and Kaito refused to let him off his back, even for just a bit. He found it odd that the thief was so worried for his health and what had happened. However, Shinichi could understand since he did get injured at a KID heist so the person that he got injured to protect would usually be worried. Once you factor in KID’s “no one gets hurt” policy, the worry makes even more sense.

The train quickly arrived in their location. Ekoda didn't seem as far from Beika as he remembered it being but he guessed it would work. The teen, because, Shinichi had decided, he couldn't be much older than his true body based on his stature, walked for another ten minutes before stopping in front of two houses.

“Are you ready tantei-kun?”

“Huh?”

Next thing Shinichi knew, he was being thrown off of KID’s back when a girl yelled at them.

“BA-KAITO!”

KID sighed, “I knew this would happen…”

Next thing Shinichi knew, a girl, that surprisingly looked a lot like Ran, was standing in front of KID with a mop held at his face in a way that could only be described as threateningly. Wait, where did she get that mop? She didn't have one when she was running up…

“Why didn't you eat dinner with Aoko and Dad last night?”

“I told you, family emergency.”

“Aoko doesn't believe you,” She brandished her mop like a sword.

Shinichi decided now would be a good time to intervene before his “stand in guardian” got himself beaten to a pulp by a girl with a mop. That would be a weird death to solve…even if had seen it with his own eyes.

“Ah- uh- Kaito-nii-san?”

“What is it Conan?” the thief replied as he went to kneel facing the boy.

Shinichi put on his best puppy dog face, never hurts to play up the child thing to avoid a death, “My shoulder still hurts.”

“I know Conan, just give me another minute with Aoko, okay?”

When Shinichi nodded in answer, he could see the girl behind Kaito, Aoko apparently, staring in shock. Had she not expected Kaito to actually have a legitimate reason?

Either way, Kaito turned around to face Aoko, “Look, can this wait? I've got to get Conan home.”

Aoko stood in shock as Kaito picked Conan back up and walked forward, toward the Kuroba household. Man, he had some explaining to do.

 ---------1412--------- 

_“Boss, we have a problem.”_

_“What is it Brandy?”_

_“I’ve made contact with a threat we believed dead.”_

_“Then dispose of him and the person that supposedly took him out.”_

_“That would mean eliminating Gin. Is that okay?”_

_“No. leave him to me, he’ll be put on a term of absence.”_

_“Understood.”_

 ---------1412--------- 

When the two boys got settled in at the Kuroba household, Kaito decided it was time to lay some ground rules.

“Alright tantei, so while you're here, there is to be no touching of any heist-y looking things you see around the house, they probably will be used eventually and most of them are prototypes and I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. Also, no entering any space deemed “private”, so that includes bedrooms, heist planning rooms (they’re marked don't worry about it), and the bathroom while someone else is in there. Got it?”

Shinichi nodded, “Just one question, what should I call you?”

“That is… a great question both ways actually. You can call me whatever you want in private, Kaito, Kuroba, KID, etc. But in public, I’d prefer you avoid the whole ‘internationally renowned thief’ thing if you wouldn’t mind. Not many are privy to that information.”

“Before I tell you what you can call me you probably want an explanation story. So I’ll start there if that’s okay?” When Kaito nodded in response, Shinichi started the story of why he looked like a 10 year old rather than his true age.

“Well you see, a few years ago I went to tropical land, I believe it’s been four years now. I went with my friend, and while we were there we rode the mystery coaster. During our ride, a man was killed in the tunnel, I solved it quickly, but there were two men that I thought were suspicious. So, when I saw them run off into a corner of the park after the fireworks, I kinda followed them.” Kaito shook his head at this point. “Hey don’t judge me, you’d probably do the same! Anyway, I followed them and saw them making a deal of some kind. However, i forget there was more than just one man; the second walked up behind me, knocked me out, and then proceeded to force me to take a poison that was meant to kill me.”

“But, you’re still here,” Kaito interrupted. “So you’re in hiding now?”

Shinichi nodded, “But, there was an _unexpected_ side-effect involved. You see, I’m not actually 10. I’m actually more like 20.”

There was a moment of silence as Kaito took in what he had just been told. He looked back up at Shinichi, “So, you’re telling me that for the last four years, you have actually been a teenager? Please tell me that this is one of those prank show things and someone is about to open that door and point out all of the cameras.”

Shinichi shook his head, “No. No jokes, no lies. This is the complete and total truth. Because there is only one truth. And that truth for this situation is that Conan Edogawa on paper may seem extremely out-connected to one Shinichi Kudo, but the truth is that we are one in the same person.”

Kaito shifted in his seat across the table from the boy detective. “So, then that’s the big secret that you’ve been trying to keep?”

The smaller nodded, “So you can call me Shinichi or Conan, though, like you, I prefer that you avoid calling me Shinichi in public unless I give the okay. Does that seem fair?”

“Perfectly.”


	4. Beginning of the big reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARE YOU GUYS READY FOR SHIT TO HIT THE FAN???? Okay, so we're finally getting into the set of chapters where the writing is a little more recent than the first or so week of November (I think I wrote this chapter just before my thanksgiving break?) and therefore I know more about what I'm posting in comparison to other things I'm currently writing (cause I'm trying to stay 3-4 chapters ahead). So next chapter is where my angst tag really hits but if you squint its also in this chapter.  
> Also, I'm writing the first real heist, which is the first heist I've ever written, right now and I'm having so much fun with it. Prep and heist will probably be separate chapters and I've finished the prep.
> 
> As always, Beta'd by the lovely Player 2~  
> (they're always my beta, tbh ... except for my Yuri on ice fic)

So life continued on. In a sense, Shinichi guessed, the two had become friends. They lived together, they started at heists together (until Kaito had to go be KID), and Shinichi had even been inducted into what he had dubbed as the Nakamori-Kuroba weekly dinner.

Usually said dinner comprised of a TV, Inspector Nakamori yelling about KID for some reason (it usually changed week to week), and Aoko and Kaito teasing each other.

When Shinichi had expressed his concerns about Kaito dating Aoko to said thief, Kaito had immediately started laughing. “Ah, Shinichi, Aoko has a boyfriend. Said boyfriend is not me.”

At this Shinichi had gone red in the face, and looked away with a soft “How the hell was I supposed to know?”

Everyday, Kaito left for work around 1 (Shinichi still hadn’t decided if it was an actual job or just something the thief had made up to meet with his assistant to plan yet another heist), which left Shinichi alone in _the_ Kaitou KID’s house (He still had some trouble believing that part of this whole ordeal was true).

During this part of the day, Shinichi usually read, or surfed the internet on Kaito’s laptop that was left in the kitchen for him to use. He found it odd that Kaito would just leave him to his own devices, considering the teen still had trouble believing that Shinichi was, well, Shinichi.

Shinichi had spent days on end trying to convince the thief that he was who he said he was. These days included hours on the phone with Haibara asking, and determining, just how much he could tell the thief, and many hours on the phone with his parents trying to get them to vouch for him (They kept refusing. Something about the thief might recognize them).

And now Shinichi had hit a block. No matter how much he told Kaito, the damn thief still refused to believe him, and only called him Shinichi to humor him. Every time the thief said “Shinichi” the detective could hear the doubt laced in his voice, and Shinichi didn’t like that one bit.

Earlier that morning, he had called Haibara and asked if he could have a temporary antidote to prove his true identity to the person he was living with. Thankfully, she had agreed, mainly because he had convinced her that if this person found out the truth he would help them take down the organization, she just didn't know that the person was Kaitou KID. He didn't think she needed to know that part yet.

 ---------1412---------

 “Kudo-kun, are you sure about this?”

“I have to prove the story to him somehow. This seems like the only foolproof way.” He didn’t tell her that he had already tried his parents, they had finally agreed and Kaito still didn’t believe him.

Haibara carefully handed a pill bottle over, he shook it. Just one. _This is the only way, right?_

“Now Kudo-kun, just remember this will only last for a few hours. Next time you see him, go ahead and take it. Get it over with so he can help us however you think he can.”

Shinichi nodded, thanked her, and went back to Ekoda from Beika. He couldn't believe he was wasting what could be his last chance to take the temporary antidote on the damn thief.

 ---------1412--------- 

Kaito was later than normal coming home and he was slightly worried for his young charge. The young detective had not been left alone for this long since the heist where he had been shot, and though that seemed like months ago at this point, in reality it had only been weeks, in fact just a few days ago Kaito had taken him to the doctor for the final check up.

So when Kaito returned to the house, with dinner mind you, and it was empty, he kind of panicked.

“Conan? Shinichi? Where are you?”

There was no response.

Shinichi was gone.

Kaito dropped the food in the kitchen. He could always warm it later.

“Shinichi?”

He headed to the room where the detective had been sleeping. Maybe… he was in here.

Kaito heard a cry of pain from inside.

With the panic racking through him, he completely forgot about the rule about not entering the other’s bedroom without explicit permission.

 ---------1412---------

 Kaito was late, and Shinichi was worried. The thief had always come home around six and asked what they should do for dinner, except for Friday's (that was the Kuroba-Nakamori family nights), then he either made something or they went out together.

That's what they had done for the last two weeks. It's what was expected at this point.

Except, now it was after seven and he had not seen Kaito since before he went to the professor’s this morning.

He wouldn't _ever_ admit that he was worried. Because he _wasn't._ Or at least that's what he was telling himself.

But he was getting off topic. The point was, Kaito wasn't home. For longer than he usually is. But, of course, he would probably be back in under half an hour so. He wouldn't just leave Shinichi, would he?

Either way he decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and steal, well, grab, some of Kaito’s clothes for taking the pill later today. He wouldn't want to accidentally rip another set of Conan clothes. He had lost count on how many of those he had lost.

However, after another half hour, Kaito still hadn't returned. So Shinichi decided to go ahead and take it, so he’d be there when Kaito got home.

Shinichi took the antidote, and stumbled toward the bed. Maybe he should have taken it sitting down, but it was a little late to think like that now.

Through the haze of pain he could hear the door open downstairs, and along with it Kaito calling for him.

Something dropped in the kitchen and suddenly foot steps were quickly covering the house. He heard them stop in front of the bedroom door.

His brain decided this was the time to let out a short cry of pain as his body _finally_ started growing back to its original state.

Seconds later the door slammed open. In hindsight, Shinichi probably should have just waited for Kaito to get home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I tend to stress write so you may be getting more chapters fairly quickly with my midterms being next week.


	5. Kaito hates being forced into believing things...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And enter the angst. Have fun everyone!
> 
> beta'd by the lovely Player 2~
> 
> Also, important note, chapters may be slow during the winter holidays. I have almost 0 inspiration when family is around (and my keyboard is acting up), while Player 2 is going out of town at some point (and they're really the one that forces me to sit down and write). So, just in case, happy whatever holiday you celebrate and happy new year.

Kaito didn’t know what to expect when he opened the bedroom door, but it sure wasn’t the young detective wrapped up in _his_ clothes seized up in pain on the bed.

Kaito gulped. “Tantei-kun are you okay?”

Shinichi just whimpered in response, so Kaito took that as an invitation to move toward the bed. As he neared the boy, he realized that more was happening than first met the eye. From his new perspective of the detective, he could see him slowly growing in size. The boy could now be no younger than a late teenager, maybe 16 or 17 and he was still slowly growing. Kaito looked on in horror as the detective slowly filled _his_ clothes (Kaito was still having trouble figuring out why Shinichi had chosen to wear them).

When it was over, Kaito stood in shock. Instead of the boy that was there when he left this morning, there was the young adult Kudo Shinichi. The ~~teen~~ person that had been missing for almost four years.

Though, Kaito guessed, at least he now knew for sure that Conan and Shinichi were one in the same. He had doubted it for a bit, but now he had no choice but to believe the young- no- older boy. The story behind it was still a little hard to believe, but he guessed that had to be at least close to the truth since the whole de-aging thing was the least believable part of the entire thing.

 ---------1412--------- 

Once Shinichi recovered from his extreme growth spurt™, he looked at Kaito expectantly. The thief seemed to take it a lot better than he had expected.

“Well Shinichi, dinner is downstairs and getting cold so let's go.”

Shinichi stared confused as Kaito walked out of the room. He had expected a lot more dramatic response from the thief. Maybe a yell of some kind or even a slight taken aback look, but he had gotten nothing. He wondered what the hell was going on in the his brain. It was certainly something to investigate because he had to know why Kaito didn’t react the way he thought, and Shinichi’s thoughts were always right,or at least they used to be.

 ---------1412-------- 

Kaito collapsed at the table when he made it downstairs. He was confused, but he couldn’t show that to the detective. The detective would decipher the confusion as weakness and take him while he was down.

Kaito also wanted to know why the other boy had found it even slightly safe to do whatever causes the transformation alone. He could have been a lot more hurt, or even killed by whatever has to happen to cause Conan to become Shinichi and vise-versa. He was constantly worried about the boy he believed to be younger because he was small and, therefore, prone to kidnappings and injury, let alone leaving the boy alone for five hours a day to go to his college classes, work, and heist planning sessions with Jii. Maybe he could start leaving the boy with Aoko, there was only one overlap of their class times and that hour and a half he could spend alone…

Kaito was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard Shinichi’s door open and close. _Come on, Kaito. Poker face._

He jumped up and started distributing the food between the two spots they usually sat at. By the time the detective made it to the kitchen, Kaito had made it back to sitting in his seat across from Shinichi's usual spot.

They both sat quietly eating until Shinichi spoke. “Why?”

That was the only word he had spoken since he had become Shinichi again. “Why what, tantei-kun~?”

“Why are you so calm about this? You just kind of accepted the fact that Shinichi and Conan are the same person… No one has accepted it this quickly without a thorough explanation and tons of questions. I… don't understand.”

“Well Shinichi, you already gave me a thorough explanation, and I do have questions, but I'm sure most of them will be answered over time. After I've earned your complete trust.”

“KID, you have to understand, I already completely trust you. I didn't show _my parents_ this part of it, and I didn't even tell them of my own free will in the first place.” Shinichi looked broken as he spoke his next sentence, “But no one understands because no one can relate to a even vaguely similar situation.”

On instinct, Kaito jumped over the table and grabbed Shinichi. “Shinichi, Conan is part of your life now and you have to come to terms with that. You are him and he is you. You can't keep denying a whole part of your being to be the other. I learned that much with being KID. His personality leaks into mine and mine into his. The same happens between you and Conan. I'm sure you aren't the arrogant prick you were before the Conan incident now, are you?”

Shinichi shook his head, “Kaito it just isn't that easy.”

“Listen to me you idiot. It can be. You need to find a couple of people that you can be who you are with. Not Shinichi, not Conan, but you. I don't care if to do that you need to create a new person, one that is whatever you want it to be. I've got people I can be me with, now it's time for you to find people you can do that with.” Kaito pulled the other boy into a hug, “even if you decide that only one person is on that list, I want you to be yourself sometimes, okay?”

Shinichi relaxed slightly into the younger boy’s hold, “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this chapter is shorter than I remember it being, I'll probably post another chapter sometime this week to make up for it


	6. The heist note arrives.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! The first heist note is here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... sorry about this being, like, extremely late but I did warn you all that I probably wasn't going to update for awhile. Player 2 urged me to post this chapter even though I can't bring myself to write a serious heist and they keep fussing at me for it. (Right now there's baguettes involved and they told me I can't post that.)
> 
> Anyway, beta'd by player 2~

The two fell back into a normal schedule after the night they both laid their cards out on the table. Shinichi had promised that he would be himself sometimes, around a select few people, and Kaito had promised to make sure he wasn’t alone as often from then on.

Kaito would leave for his classes with “Conan” at noon and drop him off with the professor on his way. Around five, Aoko would stop by the Beika station to pick him up and they would go back to Ekoda and hang out in the park (because he was “just 10”), and Kaito would come pick them up from there about an hour later and drive them home in his (surprisingly nice) car, one that would be suspicious for a young adult to drive in, but his father was a internationally acclaimed magician so he had an excuse.

\----------1412---------

Kaito had tried to keep the detective from his next heist, but had miserably failed. The boy had, of course, brought it up in front of the Nakamoris at dinner. So when Kaito said it wasn’t a good idea and Conan, in retaliation, threw the puppy dog eyes and the childish whimper into full gear, Aoko had volunteered to take him. The inspector had even offered to let the small detective “behind the scenes” of the task force as an apology for what had happened at the last heist (you know, the one where he got SHOT).

So the afternoon of the heist, Kaito reluctantly dropped the detective with Aoko on his way to meet Jii to finish up last minute plans (couldn’t have tantei-kun getting bored). Katio was still having trouble trying to figure out how the small detective had wrapped the Nakamori family around his little finger so quickly, usually the inspector had trouble accepting other detectives, especially teenaged ones.

But, Kaito guessed that the man felt guilty that he had let the young detective get hurt at the heist because the task-force didn’t do as good on the sweep through as they were supposed to do. Kaito, personally, was positive that the black organization member was not there when he first headed to the roof, Jii would have let him know if that were the case. And the older man seemed surprised when the shot came and the small detective had positioned himself just right to take the gunshot to his shoulder instead of the thief's heart. Kaito hadn’t expected it either, which is why he was so worried when the young (or at least that's what he believed at the time) boy collapsed from the blood loss.

He still couldn't believe that he was stupid enough to grab the collapsed boy and take him back to the Blue Parrot so Jii could do as much as he could. When Jii just bandaged the boy up a bit he turned back to Kaito and told him to come up with a cover story and take Conan to the hospital.

Kaito didn’t think that he would ever be able to get the nurses’ taken aback faces when he came running into the ER holding Conan. They had looked so shocked that someone had found the boy that had been reported as “KID”napped (Kaito still didn’t understand why reporters had insisted on making that pun), let alone brought him in bleeding from a gunshot wound.

Kaito shook those thoughts away. He shouldn’t be thinking about tantei-kun right now, he had a heist to do.

\---------1412---------

When Inspector Nakamori had slammed down the latest heist note on the table at the last “family” dinner, Shinichi had immediately jumped at the opportunity, throwing in the puppy dog eyes looking at Aoko (he had even-regretfully-added a “Please Aoko-nee-chan”).He knew he would get a flat no with no questions asked from the inspector and a shaky “no way in… heck” from Kaito (He had learned that Aoko didn’t like Kaito cursing around children, people that looked like children, not that she knew that, included). With that little display of pleading, the inspector and Kaito both knew there would at least be a brief appearance of the two at the heist; Shinichi smirked as he watched Kaito’s hopes become entirely crushed when the third-rate inspector offered to let Shinichi basically be his shadow for the heist.

When Shinichi was finally allowed to read the heist note, he saw through it almost immediately.

Oh, my love for a dame from my origins  
Is truly incomparable  
I’ll whisk her away only when the time has three faces  
From the tower of red in which she resides  
As she bathes in September’s last light  
-KID [](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AKaito_Kid_signature.svg)

It was quite obvious to Shinichi where and when the heist was happening, the gem itself would be easy with a quick search on the internet of a French jewel being displayed at Tohto tower at the end of September into October.

And yet, the inspector was complaining that it was so hard no one on the task force had figured it out yet, and they were even considering asking Hakuba. Shinichi, knowing Hakuba would see that as an insult, went ahead and said, “I know it!” which was a mistake on his part.

He was berated by questions from both the Nakamoris about how he had figured it out so quickly. Kaito… well he was being Kaito. Aoko had thrown a fish charm at him and he was still recovering.

The small detective cleared his throat, “If you give me a second I’ll explain.” Both the Nakamoris fell silent, and Shinichi continued. “Now, ‘a dame from my origins’ references something from France because that is where KID first appeared. ‘When the time has three faces’ holds the key to the time, which is midnight because it is known as 00:00, 24:00, and 12:00. ‘The tower of red’ is the easiest piece of the entire riddle, the tohto tower. And, finally, ‘September’s last light’ references the day itself, the last day of September, next saturday.”

\---------1412--------- 

When everyone reached the heist location, all the task force members were handed bulletproof vests, as a precaution after what happened last time, and all the regular task force members stared in slight shock that the smallest vest they could find was put on “Conan” by Nakamori-keibu himself.

All the civilians were pushed back into designated “viewing rooms” (the task force had learned-finally-that they’d never really be able to keep people out completely so they just set up safer areas for them).

Shortly thereafter, the clock struck twelve and most of the lights went out, leaving a semi-spotlight on a white clad figure.

“Ladies and Gentlemen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha... all credit for the heist note goes to player 2 cause I have no creativity.


	7. The heist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter word wise so far...
> 
> Have fun. The plot will start picking up a bit in the next chapter.

Kaito watched with the rest of the task force as Conan was lead in personally by Nakamori-keibu. Everything so far was running exactly as he had (re)planned it to. Except for the random kite tied to one of the traffic cones the task force was using to keep people out of the area. Somehow, whoever had put it there managed to make it fly and set off something too early. Luckily that was the only thing that had gone wrong, and Kaito was able to get the prank set backup before any of the other task force members noticed; it was a little hard explaining to the people around the kite why a once white kite was now dyed purple and covered in confetti, but the little girl it apparently belonged to didn't seem to mind. 

And apparently she had seen through his disguise because she leaned into him after he handed it to her and said “Thank you, KID.”

And of course, one person being able to see through his disguise terrified Kaito and led to a quick change into another officer for the sake of his peace of mind.

\---------1412---------

Shinichi laughed when the task force officer he had pinged as KID began to clean up the kite he had set up. A quick call to Ayumi-chan over the detective badge brought in reinforcements for his plot. He explained to her that there was a task force officer cleaning up a misplaced prank was KID, got her on the case, and she did perfectly.

It was entertaining to watch the usually calm and collected thief become panicked as Ayumi called him KID as Shinichi had suggested.

He could see Ayumi giggle as she walked away with the white-cum-purple kite from the cameras he was watching. (Yes, Nakamori had allowed himself to attend the heist but that didn't mean much. He was still 10 in other people’s eyes.)

Of course, he wondered just how much KID would allow him to mess with him. It wasn't often Shinichi could find a person as close to his intellectual abilities as Kaito. He really hoped that this wouldn't put a dent in the friendship they had formed over the past couple of weeks after Kaito finally accepted the fact that Edogawa Conan and Kudo Shinichi were the same person.

\---------1412---------

Kaito was about ready to swear that the heist that he found Pandora at was going to be his final heist. Apparently, tantei-kun had no idea what caring for entailed. The boy had run him ragged trying to make sure that his disguise wasn't discovered (because there was no-way those three kids that approached him at every change weren't in cahoots with Shinichi), keeping his tricks and the like not set off (stuff kept happening to trigger them and the boy was running cameras so there was no telling how many of them he could see, the damn brat), and, of course, avoiding the other task members (it's like Shinichi was finding him and telling the others to keep an eye on that person, that boy had no respect for his caregivers).

But he was finally only 5 minutes away from his heist, and he had just made his (hopefully) last disguise change of the night.

He still couldn't believe that his precious tantei-kun would dare mess with his heist so much. Kaito got the point after the girl approached him a third time (because that's when he figured it out): just because Shinichi and Kaito were friends, didn't mean that KID and Conan were. But just because he understood it, didn’t mean he enjoyed it. Shinichi would always be his friend, no matter what personas they were currently taking. He wished that Shinichi would see it the same way, but for now, the fact that Shinichi was friends with Kaito was enough, mostly because it took so long to get to this point.

But, he digresses. There was a heist to start in…

_ 5…  
_ _ 4… _ _   
_ _ 3… _ _   
_ _ 2… _ _   
_ __ 1…

_ "Ladies and Gentlemen!” _

\---------1412---------

Shinichi really wished Kaito would stop being so dramatic with his entrances. The thief had all but appeared out of nowhere once he had disappeared after he had sent Mitsuhiko to tell Kaito that his disguise had been found out.

When the lights had gone out, leaving a “spotlight” on the white-clad thief, who was resting on top of the display case.

Shinichi really wished that Hakuba would be there to help out the task force. Purely just to keep them from pulling all the shit they usually pulled. Unfortunately, his wish was not granted in time.

The force, as KID first appeared, decided to dog-pile on top of the display case. This effectively broke the glass on the display case  _ and _ provided a perfect getaway for the thief. The entire task force was  _ ridiculous. _ He really wanted to yell at the damn fools, but didn’t exactly want to get in trouble with the Nakamoris. He was supposed to be ten, which kept him confined to the trailer with all the security, so he couldn’t exactly yell at the task force for their stupidity without possibly blowing his cover. He, for some reason, decided that the best solution would be to slam his head down on the table, and  _ damn  _ he forgot how bad that hurt…

\---------1412---------

Kaito was enjoying himself as he usually did. He loved the chase, even though he often denied this in favor of saying he was simply in it to achieve revenge for his father’s death. However, in a way, both were true; he started with the latter reason and kept going because of the former.

Whatever his reason for continuing his heists, the best part of the process was the planning before the execution. Which is why for the gem that originated from the country where his mother stopped being a thief and his dad became one, he planned an extra special heist (kind of anyway). In reality, he had planned every single bit of the heist he could. He called and threatened the person holding the exhibition into housing the jewel at Tohto tower over a burner phone, purely because it is the closest Japan has to the Eiffel tower.

When the heist started he quickly announced he was taking the diamond, took it and escaped in the turmoil that is the task force, leaving a giant French flag in the doorway of the exhibition hall. One of his less creative ideas, but still an idea that reflected the idea he was going for: establishing that there is only one Kaitou KID and that is him.

He almost regretted not having warned tantei-kun that working with the task force meant that he probably would only see KID through the security cameras, but he didn’t, so he actually missed the pitter-patter of the detective’s feet from behind him as he climbed the stairs to reach the taller beams so he could activate the lights. As he reached the beam he was aiming for, he slipped his hand into his pocket to grab the remote. He punched in the correct code and glanced to his left in order to check that the blue and white spotlights were hitting the projection screen he had Jii-chan set-up. After this confirmation, he punched in the next code that activated the snow machines. He smiled as he flew off on his hang-glider, another successful heist. It was just a bummer that  _ L'Incomparable diamond  _ was not pandora. Oh well, there was always next time.


	8. The plot thickens... Kinda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a possible serial Killer on the loose that Shinichi needs to take care of and the Black Organization is forming a search party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Two chapters in two days? Sorcery! (Not really Player 2 and I got together and just wrote).  
> Don't get used to this length or the 3 chapters in 5 days thing. It won't be happening a lot. I don't always have this kind of time.
> 
> Beta'd, as always, by Player 2.

_**NOTE: This chapter does have graphic descriptions of blood. Please approach carefully. If you want to avoid that and still understand the next chapter, you can skip the starred sections.** _

* * *

Shinichi was starting to get down right suspicious. Throughout the time he had been living with Kaito, there had not been a single spontaneous murder in the area. Usually he had to solve at least one murder a day, which is why he was brooding. Something bad was  coming, but he couldn’t tell what; the last time this had happened, the Conan incident had started. He could almost see something happening on the horizon that was on the same caliber (or worse). He dreaded learning what exactly it might be, and wondered what he could do to stop it.

\---------1412---------

_“Brandy, what’s your status?”_

_“I’m having trouble getting close to the target. I might need backup.”_

_“You’ve never needed backup before.”_

_“Well this time I do.”_

_“Fine. I’ll send you Snake and Gin. Don’t mess this up.”_

_“Yes, boss.”_

\---------1412--------

_ ********************************************************************************** _

Snow was falling. A layer of ice had formed under it, but it was still a beautiful blanket compared to the light dusting the man usually got. He smiled. If everything was going as he planned it to, then that brat’s blood would paint that white a fascinating red.

_ ********************************************************************************** _

\---------1412---------

Kaito sat watching the news. Conan sat next to him on the sofa as they watched the report on a killer that had gotten to a girl that was in middle school. They were reporting that the girl was seen with a man that her friends didn't know after school, picking her up. Shinichi seemed worried when the middle school girl part was mentioned so he gently pulled the boy closer. He couldn't quite understand why he was so worried, but when he pulled out his phone it made a lot more sense.

The detective obviously had someone that he knew that was put at risk due to this information and wanted to make sure they were safe.

Kaito often worried for the small detective because he seemed so vulnerable compared to his full-sized self. And the fact that none of his friends were strong enough to protect themselves made him worry even more. He knew that Shinichi relied on the detective boys and that professor for just about everything, but they seriously were not strong enough to protect themselves, no matter what they tried to tell themselves and “Conan.”

And once you got down to it, Kaito simply had very little trust in _his_ tantei-kun’s “family.”

\---------1412---------

Shinichi was definitely worried. Mostly for Ayumi, because Haibara could take care of herself, but Ayumi had no idea how to handle a lot of the murders they tended to stumble across, let alone the possibility of her becoming a victim.

He feared that this man would become a serial killer of middle school-aged girls, which would put _half_ of “his aged” friends in danger (not that he would agree that they were friends out loud).

He just wanted to send a quick text to Haibara to keep an eye out and the other on Ayumi-

“What are you doing, tantei-kun?”

Shinichi startled looking up at the thief. “I was just going to send a text to make sure that-”

“The detective boys are safe?”

He nodded and turned back to the screen of his phone. He went and found an article about the murder ( **_Middle schooler killed after leaving school with a strange, foreign looking man!_ ** ) and screenshotted it.

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** ****  
_(Attachment)_ _  
_ _Keep an eye out, would you?_

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _Sure but you owe me for this._

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _I know._

With that taken care of, Conan relaxed back into the couch. For some reason it felt like he kept slowly drifting closer to Kaito as they watched the end of the news. Weird.

\---------1412---------

As the day wore on, Kaito realized that Shinichi was keeping his phone as close to him and seemed scared every time the text tone or a similar sound came from it. He knew why, but he couldn't help but wonder _why_ Shinichi was so worried. That Haibara girl was probably the strongest of all the detective’s friends and that was the person that Shinichi had texted.

Once, when the apparent-younger left to use the restroom, Kaito glanced at the most recent incoming texts. It seemed he had asked the girl to give him hourly updates because the text seemed short and obviously just a status of the group.

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _12:00 hours- All is clear._

Obviously the girl cared for the group just as much as Shinichi did, if not more. Which caused Kaito to start thinking. He wondered if Haibara was the scientist in the same situation that Shinichi had mentioned before he actually believed the boy about the age-change deal.

When the detective re-emerged he turned to Kaito, “Don't you have class today?”

“ _Shit!”_

_“_ Your lucky Aoko didn't hear that.”

\---------1412---------

When Kaito dropped Shinichi off at the professor’s house, the detective could not have relaxed more than he did. He knew that the detective boys would get off school in an hour or so and head here. Meaning, he could see they were all okay with his own eyes. He was actually tempted to head to the school and walk with them back to the professor’s, but he didn’t want to seem worried because that could “injure Genta and Mitsuhiko prides.” That didn’t mean he didn’t still want to go, but he was at least attempting to battle the feeling of needing to go to help protect his friends. In the end, that feeling won over.

\---------1412---------

“Conan-kun!”

Haibara was surprised to see the detective standing outside their school by himself, obviously waiting for the detective boys. In fact, she didn’t even notice it was him until Ayumi’s shout brought her attention to the figure leaning against the wall.

The boy visibly startled. He was probably thinking about that case he had texted her about earlier…

“Hey guys.”

Haibara could see and hear the worry laced in his every word and movement, even though he hid it well. If she hadn’t been part of the black organization for as long as she had been, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed it in the first place. The detective boys were questioning why he had come to meet them instead of waiting for them back at the professor’s. _If only they knew how far he went to protect them._

\---------1412---------

When the crew reached the professor’s house, not a single one of them were shocked to see part of it in flames once again. It tended to happen about once a week, usually during testing of one of the professor’s new inventions. At this point, they all had the local fire department on speed-dial and quickly decided which one of them it would be to call as the others rushed into the house to retrieve the professor and anything else they could carry that seemed even slightly valuable. Of course, by the time all of them were out of the house the fire department was arriving and the big hoses left prints in the snow that had fallen the night before.

Shinichi truly hated not being able to stop the firemen from tainting the blanket that Beika so rarely got, but he didn’t have much of a choice if he wanted the professor’s house to survive.

\---------1412---------

There was a knock on the door right at 5 o’clock as there usually was.

“Ah, Aoko-chan! Good to see you again.”

“Good to see you too, Agasa-hakase. I’m here to pick up Conan.”

“Of course, he and the rest of the kids are in the common room.”

Shinichi looked up as he heard them enter the room. He nodded to Aoko in greeting and played his last play in the game of Uno they had been playing, effectively finishing the game. He stood from their position on the ground.

“Are you ready, Conan?”

“As ready as I ever am, Aoko-nee.” He turned to the other kids, “Please be careful.”

Ayumi smiled and nodded enthusiastically, “We will be, don’t worry Conan-kun!”

Shinichi let a small smile cross his face, “I’ll see you guys later.”

Shinichi and Aoko slowly left the house.

“Hey, Conan?”

“Yes?”

“I know there’s been snow, but would going to the park like normal be okay?”

Shinichi froze, the investigation for that girl’s murder was still ongoing and if he remembered correctly from the newscast, the murder had taken place in the park that they usually went to.

“Conan?”

Shinichi startled, “Ah, yes! That’s fine!”

Aoko gave him a small smile as they continued on the path to the park.

\---------1412---------

The first thing Shinichi did when they finally reached the park was spot the police tape and run toward it. “Megure-keibu!”

“Ah, Conan-kun! What are you doing here?”

“I want to help!” After he had been kicked out of the Mouri residence, he had told Megure-keibu about the entire Shinichi-is-Conan thing (after a lot of pestering to tell him why he had been kicked out). Luckily, the man readily believed him along with the rest of division one. Apparently they had suspected it for years, and luckily were all willing to continue calling him Conan for the sake of keeping face to avoid his death.

“Sure come on in.”

“Thank you!” Shinichi ducked under the police line but his hand was suddenly grabbed.

“Conan?”

“You can come too Aoko-nee. Megure-keibu won’t mind.”

He watched Aoko gulp nervously as she debated whether or not to join them. She slowly nodded. He could see the hesitation in her every move. Maybe doing this with her instead of Kaito was a bad idea. She didn’t know that he was Shinichi and therefore didn’t know his record. He vaguely felt bad about it.

He walked up to Megure-keibu who only vaguely realized there was another person with him. “Who are the suspects?”

He pointed to a group of men standing out to the side, “Those are the 5 left. We did a line up for the girls that saw him and those are the ones they chose of those found in the park at the right time to be the murder.” Shinichi nodded, he would have to asses the body and the suspects to decide which of them were capable of murdering the girl.

“Can I see it?”

_ ********************************************************************************** _

The inspector nodded in response and led him to the body that was lying nearby, covered with a white sheet. He didn’t even have to see the body to know it was the work of a well placed knife. The blood had seeped into the snow, giving it a startling beautiful red tint, and small drops of blood from the knife being moved away trailed toward the walkway for about a foot before abruptly stopping. Shinichi heard Aoko stop behind them when she realized what he had dragged them into: a murder scene.

_********************************************************************************** _

\---------1412---------

Aoko was panicking. There was no sense in hiding it. There was blood and a body and _oh god what was Conan doing. Why is he heading toward that thing and reaching for the sheet._ She thought she was going to be sick. There was no way Conan knew about the murder, was there? He didn’t agree to come here with intentions to help _solve_ it, did he? Had she been played from the very beginning?

She turned around. She was _so_ calling Kaito as soon as his class ended and that boy would pay by the handle of her mop, no matter what he tried to do to get out of it. He didn’t warn her that Conan was a mystery otaku like her boyfriend is!

Actually, that may have been why she wasn’t told. Ba-Kaito.

\---------1412---------

Shinichi didn’t feel like making a big show out of solving the murder, so he settled with whispering his conclusions to Megure-keibu. Megure told his officers which suspect Shinichi had picked out, and were able to get a confession out of the man. Unsurprisingly, (because Shinichi had done some research and figured it out) the man was a known serial killer in the U.S. and they handed the man over to Interpol to deal with.

By this point, Kaito had arrived at the park. He was standing next to a pale and shaking Aoko with a frustrated look on his face.

“Really? With Aoko?”

Shinichi offered a sorry smile to the discontented man.

“You’re in trouble. Go get in the car.”

He nodded, and smiled as he walked away toward the car. He didn’t care what his “punishment” was going to be. At least he didn’t have to worry about Ayumi and Haibara anymore. He sent a quick text to tell Haibara she could go back to her regularly scheduled programming.

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _All is well. Clear._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this chapter's length, along with the frequency of the more recent updates are an anomaly. Please do not expect chapters to be like this from now on. There will probably be some similar cases, but this will not become a normal thing.


	9. Trouble with Babysitters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi gets frustrated with his punishment while Kaito is out. But... what is the black organization up to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha... so this took a while. Player 2 and I have been _swamped_ with school and we've both stayed up till midnight doing homework for our AP classes. We suffer. This chapter is mostly filler except for the last break but it may be referenced in later chapters. Conversions from Kaito's portion on the end notes

The next week of being “grounded” was actually pretty crappy. Shinichi quickly got sick of it, because to keep up face with Aoko, he had a baby sitter (that charged Kaito way too much) for the duration of it instead of going to the professor’s house when Kaito left. When they were in Aoko’s presence, he wasn’t even allowed to look at the damn TV, let alone pick up his phone and text anyone. Fortunately, when it was just him and Kaito, he could carry on as normal, except for the occasionally judging look. 

Honestly, he had no idea what the big deal was. Most of the time, murders and the like often just happened around him. It wasn’t like he planned to go help solve it until Aoko suggested they go to the park, and if they had gone without her asking and him realizing on the way there, there was no way he could have missed the police tape. Plus, as the first homicide he had heard of in the past month, he was itching to “play detective.” Besides, it's not like he forced Megure-keibu to let him help  _ or _ forced Aoko to follow him into the crime scene. He had made it very clear that she didn’t have to follow him in but she did anyway. Completely not his fault.

But he was blamed because the girl couldn't hold her stomach and had apparently gotten sick. Obviously, her reaction helped explain why Nakamori-keibu had turned down the offered promotion to division one a few years ago… it was either that or the fact that he was so dead-set on finding KID, who just so happened to be his next door neighbor. Not that he currently, nor needed, to know that small tidbit of information. Even though Shinichi would never willingly tell that to the man, it was still good leverage against Kaito that he may or may not have used to get out of having the punishment full time. But he wasn't going to confirm nor deny any rumors that may come from this thought. 

Whatever. Shinichi is pretty sure there’s something more important to you than listening to him complain about his punishment and explain how he got out it being worse. 

\---------1412---------

Kaito hit his head against the kitchen table. First the boy drags Aoko of all people to a crime scene where  _ he solves a murder perfectly _ . AS A 10 YEAR OLD. God, Kaito didn't want to know Shinichi’s reaction if he told him the only reason he was being punished for more than 2 days was because Nakamori-keibu insisted the boy be punished for a full week. 

And do you  _ know  _ how expensive baby sitters are? Kaito had dealled out almost 23,000* Yen for the first two days! And the boy was only being sat for 5 hours! So he went and found some high school freshman and hired her on the spot when she said she would only charge 460** Yen an hour. 

Kaito still felt bad that he had to leave Shinichi, a perfectly capable young adult, with a babysitter so that he wouldn't get arrested for leaving the child alone in a house for so long. 

The girl showed up and he left. And that was the end of his part in this chapter, except for mentions by Shinichi. 

\---------1412---------

Shinichi stared at the girl and boy across from him. This girl was supposed to be his new babysitter that was cheaper than the last. They had spent the last hour making out on the couch after telling him to go “play on his phone or something.” At least she had waited half an hour after Kaito left to invite over the man that was currently making it to second base on the common room couch. How…  _ inappropriate.  _ God. His normal self was older than these two and he had never even thought about that sort of thing. 

“Ah, nee-san? When are we going to eat lunch?”

The two jerked apart when he spoke. “Well, what do you want, brat?” the girl asked, still out of breath from the  _ session _ . 

“I don't know, nee-san. My last babysitter, Kaito-nii, and Aoko-nee usually choose what we eat,” he pouted. 

“Go to your room, brat. I'll bring you something.”

“Thank you!”

He ran to his room. An hour later he was thrown a box of crackers. 

He hated these people. 

\---------1412---------

At 4 o'clock sharp, Conan finally brought together the courage to head back into the common room, after reading through  _ A Study In Scarlett _ . Luckily, Aoko should be arriving soon to pay and relieve the babysitter. 

He still hated them, and started hating them even more to walk down and see them  _ still _ making out. It had been  _ three hours _ since he was thrown crackers, and he was 99% sure this could be considered child abuse. 

Could he turn them in for this? Probably. Would he? No. because Kaito was already still upset with him about the whole “solving murder with Aoko there thing.”

Finally,  _ thankfully,  _ Aoko walked through the door, causing the two to jump to opposite sides of the couch as quickly as they could. Aoko cast them a slight outraged-no,  _ disgusted _ -look. 

The girl was sent home with a mop sized bruise on her head and half of the pay Kaito had promised her. The rest was spent by Aoko and Conan for some ice cream before Kaito got back. Luckily there were no spontaneous murders. This time anyway. 

\---------1412---------

Her feet felt sluggish. Heavy. The ache was almost too much. But she knew it was necessary. It would have been much easier if she had had food at all in the past couple days. She had to get out. She had to find Shinichi. Warn him. 

The alarms that alerted their captors that one had escaped went off. Two men dressed in black appeared in her path, preventing her from heading any further and took her back to their shared cell

_ Shinichi… please help me… _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *$200 USD  
> **$4 USD  
> I'll try to get Player 2 to write this weekend so LLW gets an update, but no promises. See you guys later!


	10. Silence is not as golden as it seems.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi has fallen silent and Kaito doesn't understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha... you guys are going to hate me. but no worries chapter 10 is already in the works!

Shinichi looked to the side as Ran adjusted the raincoat that she had put on him. Apparently when one is a seven year old, they can't do anything. Ran pulled the green hood over his head and shoved him out the door toward the rental car. She quickly joined him grabbing his hand and pulling the white hood of her own coat up. 

“Ready Conan-kun?” 

The words knocked him out of his thoughts and he nodded. Almost in a daze, he climbed into the backseat as Ran slid into the front next to her father. A hand reached back and pushed his hood back off of his head and a second later offered him a Game Boy which he willingly took. 

Shinichi quietly started up the game and began to play, but the device only held his attention for so long. The Game Boy found itself forgotten in his lap, when he diverted his attention to staring out the window. He sat in silence as his hands absent-mindedly found a snap button hidden in the sleeve of his coat. 

_ Pop, click, pop, scrape, click.  _

The sound was comforting. Not in the comfort of, say, a warm blanket, but the comfort of being in  _ control of something _ . 

Yes, Shinichi loved Ran, but sometimes, he wished she wasn't so overbearing. 

“Cut that out brat.”

Shinichi didn’t hear him. He continued. 

“I said cut that out!” Kogoro turned around and smacked his hand, effectively knocking him free of his mind. Shinichi jerked up to look at the man in shock and fear

Ran turned around, “Otou-san, don’t be so rough with him. Are you okay, Conan-kun?” he nodded, still staring at the other in slight fear.

Shinichi picked the Game Boy back up. He needed to calm down. 

“Otou-san, you know how hard Conan-kun is taking the rumor of Shinichi’s death.” Their voices faded from his thoughts. 

He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. But in a way he was, Shinichi may never return. Shinichi was slowly starting to fade wasn’t he? Conan spent too much time in the open for Shinichi to not have changed.

So if he was able to bring Shinichi back would he really be Shinichi?

\---------1412---------

Conan was jerked out of his thoughts by a loud, “Shinichi! I’m home!” He turned around from the window he was looking out of and ran into the main room.

“Welcome back, Kaito!” The man had run to the store to get them some hamburger steak for dinner, so Shinichi had decided to sit in the window of his bedroom and think. It was something he hadn’t done since he started living with Kaito after he got shot at that heist. Unfortunately, the thinking he had done brought forth a memory he really didn’t want to remember. It was a moment that had attributed to his eventual removal from the Mouri Detective Agency. 

His displeasure must have shown on his face because Kaito felt the need to ask, “Hey, are you okay?” But, Shinichi couldn’t bring himself to reply. 

\---------1412---------

Kaito slowly became more worried the longer Shinichi took to reply to his, seemingly, fairly simple question. Kaito decided to sink down in front of the small detective.

“Shinichi, I need you to talk to me. What's wrong?” The smaller remained silent. “Shinichi?”

The boy just stared at him, eyes appearing glazed over. “I'm going to call Aoko, okay? Stay right here.” 

Kaito picked up his phone and hit Aoko’s name, which wasn't hard because she was the first listed in his recents. 

“Hey Aoko, what does one do when someone won't respond?”

\---------1412---------

Aoko heard her phone ring. It was the weekend, so she knew it couldn't be any of her classmates. So it had to be Hakuba (shaky a) or Kaito. Kaito had just called her an hour ago, so she hoped it was her boyfriend, the former. She almost sent it to voicemail, because Kaito still lived next door and if it was an emergency he could just come over really quickly. But she answered the phone anyway. 

“Hey Aoko, what does one do when someone won't respond?”

Aoko’s breath caught in her throat. “Aoko doesn't know. Why? Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, I asked Shi-Conan a question while we were talking and he suddenly went silent. I-I don't know what to do.”

Aoko could hear the worry in the other’s voice. She didn't know what to tell Kaito to do.k Her first instinct was to tell him to call an ambulance, but she didn't think that would be the right decision. 

“Oh god, Aoko I gotta go he just slipped down against the wall.”

She made up her mind. “I'll be right over.” She hung up and the phone fell out of her hand. She bolted out of her bedroom and through the front door, barely stopping to tell her father where she was going as he stared at her in confusion. 

When Aoko made it through the door to Kaito’s house she was greeted with a sight she had never seen before. 

At some point after she had hung up, Kaito had apparently sat down with the boy and pulled him into his lap. They were facing each other, and Kaito seemed at a loss as to why the boy had buried his face into his chest and lightly grabbed his shirt. 

Kaito looked up slightly when she entered, probably just to make sure it was just her, and then looked back down at Conan, whispering something and then slowly put him against the wall. 

He looked at her and started toward her, with a grave look on his face, and a tear stain on his shirt. 

\---------1412---------

The entire situation was terrifying Kaito. He heard Aoko hang up after he informed her of Conan’s breakdown and was at a loss. So, he did what he does best: his first instinct. 

He sat down next to the detective and slowly placed his hand and the smaller’s shoulder. Shinichi crumbled before his eyes, tears began to stir at the edge of the detective’s eyes, and he pulled himself into the larger’s lap. Kaito just held him. 

He got a soft “It hurts,” from Shinichi before he fell silent again. 

Kaito stared at him in shock.  _ What  _ hurt?  _ So  _ much hurts  _ everyday  _ when you have a secret identity. 

When Aoko opened the door, he almost regretted calling her. He hadn't had time to ask Shinichi what exactly was wrong, and now he couldn't without possibly exposing the other’s secret. God keeping track of two separate identities for two people was hard. 

“Hey Shinichi, Aoko is here. I'm going to put you back against the wall, okay?”

The only response he got was the loosening of the grip the other’s hands had on his shirt. He shifted the detective onto the floor, and stood so he could go talk to Aoko. 

“Ba-Kaito, what's wrong with Conan-kun?”

“I'm not quite sure,” Kaito sighed. “The only thing I've been able to get out of him is ‘it hurts’. I'm not sure where to go from here.” 

He could see Aoko gulp, “Should we take him to the hospital?”

Kaito shook his head in reply, “I think I need to make a call to Agasa-hakase. He knows more about Conan than I do. Can you keep an eye on him while I make the call?” When he received a nod in response, he stepped to the side and grabbed Shinichi’s phone. 

“Agasa-hakase’s house.”

“Ah, is this Haibara-chan?” 

“Yes.”

“This is Kaito, the person that's been taking care of Conan?”

“Ah yes, Conan has mentioned you a lot. Is something wrong?”

“He, uh…, I don't know how to explain it. He has suddenly-”

“Acting like he may have a fever, not speaking, and extremely clingy?”

“Yes, how-how did you know all of-?”

“That's not important. You need to get him here as soon as possible.”

“Okay. Is there anyth-”

“No. Just bring him here.” The line went dead. He slipped the phone into his pocket and headed back into the main room. He saw Aoko trying to convince Shinichi to have a glass of water. 

“Aoko?” She turned. “Help me get him into the car? We’re going to take him to the professor’s.”

She stood up and reached down to the detective who quickly grabbed her hands and then switched to her waist once he was standing as well. She glanced to Kaito for help, which he begrudgingly gave through the act of picking the detective up and having him wrap his arms around the thief's neck. He carried Shinichi out to the car and attempted to place him in the back seat, to little avail. 

He turned to Aoko, “Would you mind? Just so I can drive?” At her nodded response she slid into the backseat which helped him transfer Shinichi to the car a lot easier. He slid into the driver’s seat and took off toward Beika. 

\---------1412---------

Aoko couldn't help but marvel at how domestic the entire situation seemed. Conan kind of was like a sick child that was being clingy to their parents. The only problem with this was that this situation would make her and Kaito the parents, and while she could actually see a kid between the two of them looking similarly to Conan, she'd rather not get that stuck in her head. For as long as she had liked Kaito, she liked Hakuba now. And that was that. 

But she still couldn't help but worry for the small boy that was currently curled up in her side. He seemed so fragile and childlike compared to the strong, mature persona he usually held. 

She just hoped that whatever was going on, someone knew what to do. 


	11. The aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> revelations and recovery from the last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry you had to wait like 3 weeks for a chapter that is shorter than the freaking prologue.   
> Writer's block + School = no time to write  
> If it wasn't for the valentines prompt the Player 2 suggested (you should go read that) this chapter wouldn't have come nearly as fast.
> 
> Beta'd by Player 2

Haibara glanced at the phone in slight worry that she didn't let show when she spoke. Kudo only called when something was wrong. Yet here was his phone calling the professor. She had an idea of what it was the second Kuroba started to explain what was happening. In a way, she had been expecting this call for years because of one of the lab rat’s reactions to the APTX. She didn’t know the exact cause at the time, but she had spent so long trying to find a cure for Kudo that she had isolated the chemical formula that caused the dissociation. It had only existed the same way in two versions of the APTX, the one before Kudo had taken it and the one that he did take. She had come up with a formula to knock him out of it long ago, but she had hoped she would never need it. 

Slowly, she ducked into her lab and pulled out the long forgotten medication she had made for him. She seriously hoped that it worked; she had never gotten the chance to test it. 

\---------1412--------

Kaito couldn't help but glance back every once in awhile to check and make sure both Aoko and Shinichi were both there and safe. From what he could tell, Shinichi had all but burrowed himself in Aoko’s side. It was actually quite adorable, or it would be if he was actually 10. He found it kind of weird that it took something like this to get Shinichi to seem like a person of his appearance’s age. 

He just hoped he could get to the professors in time to fix this. Purely because it felt  _ wrong.  _

\---------1412---------

They made it as soon as they could, Haibara noted. She could understand though, Kuroba-kun had never really been in a situation like this before. She did notice that he wasn’t alone, she should have predicted that and told him to come alone, but she had overlooked the fact that he might have panicked and called someone to help before her. Oh well, she’ll have to figure something out. 

She ran out to meet them, “The professor is waiting. This way.”

She led them into her lab (oh god she felt so dumb for this) and pointed to the table that was off to the side. She turned to the professor and briefly explained what needed to be done before leaving the four in her lab and going to call the kids to make sure they wouldn’t drop by. It would do more harm than good for Kudo-kun to have contact with anyone outside of those already here until the medication got into his system.

\---------1412---------

Aoko watched Conan slowly come back to them over the next few hours. Agasa-hakase had warned them that he probably wouldn’t remember much and be confused once he was fully back to himself. Kaito had had to leave half an hour ago for an “emergency”- Aoko had found out years ago that Kaito was hiding something and she had a feeling it was what the emergency was. 

Conan, finally,looked up in confusion, “Aoko-neechan? When did you get here? And why are we in the professor’s lab?”

\---------1412---------

Shinichi woke up confused. He could vaguely recall Kaito returning home, and,  _ oh god, _ he had a meltdown and  _ cuddled _ with Kaito in his panic. And Aoko had probably seen it. But they had probably driven there and Kaito was the only one that could technically truly drive so that meant… had he snuggled up into Aoko’s side in the car?

His reputation was forever ruined. There was no recovery from this. Kaito will hold this against him forever and there is no one that could change his mind on that. The thief is an expert in blackmail.

Well at least he is back to normal now, and Kaito had enough tact to call the professor and Haibara instead of taking him to an actual hospital. Well, at least Kaito listened to his concerns about the hospital staff running just the right test to figure out that he is Shinichi Kudo and should be dead with the APTX, because he panics over that everytime he ends up at the hospital. 

Aoko explained to him that Kaito had called the professor after he called her and he said to bring him here; apparently, Haibara had already prepared a remedy for whatever had occurred and they had been able to get him to take it fairly easily. 

Haibara was apparently feeling nice and let them go back to Ekoda after only an hour. He wasn’t surprised when Aoko just headed straight into her house, and Kaito attacked him with a giant hug when he entered the Kuroba house. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Shinichi.”

Shinichi smiled, having a family that is always there for him was new, but it was something he didn’t really want to let go of any time soon. Maybe, just maybe, Kaito would let him stay after “Conan” no longer has to exist. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this is important. Disassociation is scary. Everyone experiences it slightly differently. I wrote Shinichi's the way I personally experience it (minus the medication because that is actually really not a good idea, I just used it for the purpose of the story). If the episodes aren't treated properly, the person experiencing it could be stuck there for over a week (though that is dangerous, and the person should be taken to the hospital after the first 12 hours). 
> 
> Anyway, hopefully the next chapter will come sooner. I do have a small break next week (like 3 days) so maybe I can just sit and write one day. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	12. What.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito decides he and Shinichi need a vacation.
> 
> AKA the beginning of the obligatory hot springs episode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been like a month and I am so sorry. You all probably thought that I left like Player 2 did.  
> Speaking of which, I had no clue they were going to do that, but in reading their note, I noticed its worded oddly. They don't even write like that for school stuff (I proofread everything for people) or emails or texts... Anyway, I also have an elusive link known as Player 2's Tumblr which you can see [here](https://that-one-shutin.tumblr.com). Please don't mention me if you decide to contact them there please. I was told to leave them off the grid as much as possible. 
> 
> I'm so sorry this is short, but the next chapter has a lot of plot and I wanted it to be more fluffy as my return after a month with Player 2 having gone on strike.  
> Anyway, Player 2 still beta'd for me, so enjoy.

For the next week, Kaito spent almost every waking (and some non-waking) moment worrying about Shinichi and what he could do to make sure the boy couldn't go through that experience again. The Haibara girl suggested he not be left alone, and he be kept as distracted from his own mind as possible. Kaito followed her advice as much as he could, just because he couldn't stand his Tantei-kun to not act like the strong person he tries to be.

That's why he decided that he and Shinichi needed a break.

He had thrown together money and a bag for the two of them and picked “Conan” up from school, much to the other’s, and his friends, confusion.

“Kaito, where are we going?”

“Well, Shinichi we’re going on a vacation for the weekend.”

Shinichi stared at him. “Why?”

“Shinichi, I'm stressed, you're stressed. We both need a nice break. So we're going to take a weekend and hide from the rest of the world.”

Shinichi looked at him for a second, then shrugged, “Okay.”

The rest of the car ride was spent listening to a soundtrack some KID fan had put together in relative silence, Kaito wouldn't stop “singing” along (it was mostly instrumental, how does one sing along to that???), until they reached wherever Kaito had decided they were going.

\---------1412---------

A hot spring. They were at a freaking hot spring. Shinichi turned to glare at Kaito.

“What. Is. This.”

“This my dear tantei, is a hot spring!” Kaito replied, just a bit too cheery for Shinichi’s liking. He slammed his head down on the dashboard of the car. “Tantei~ don't mess up my car~” Kaito pulled him away from the dash and started muttering to the car. “Are you hurt baby? Did he dent you? You're okay. Shhh.” Through his mutterings he kept shooting Shinichi, who was looking at him in exasperation, glares.

Shinichi rolled his eyes, “Anyway, I can tell that this is a damn hot spring, but why the hell are we here?”

“I told you we needed a vacation!”

Shinichi sighed, “Alright.”

Kaito got out of the car and Shinichi quickly followed.

“I’m going to let them know we’re here, tantei. You go ahead and start getting our stuff out of the trunk ok?” Kaito said as he started walking into the inn portion. Shinichi nodded in response even though he knew the other could no longer see him.

Kaito rejoined him and took his stuff in his arms and waited for Conan to grab his stuff. “This way tantei~.”

They dropped their things in their room and headed to the common area of the inn. Time for their vacation to officially start!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Anyway, as long as school and inspiration cooperate, I should have the next chapter out before April 9th, maybe sooner because I have a school break the first full week in April and we don't have any plans that I know of. See you soon (hopefully)!


	13. And So It Begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you'll notice, I have added a new tag: "the seemingly plotless shenanigans are over". This is very true. The story is going to be very plot heavy from here on out. Just letting you know.

The first idea that something went wrong was the scream of anger in the common area that led both of the boys running as quickly as they could into the only thing that got Shinichi to feel right again: a crime scene. It often left Kaito slightly worried for the younger looking boy. All of this mixing up with criminals and the like could leave them with having to save the boy once again (like getting shot or getting kidnapped or gaining enemies). His tendency to run into these situations without thinking them through even just a slight bit usually caused Kaito’s stress levels to fly up into the heavens. After the first murder incident with Aoko, the ones after that were a lot less dramatic; however, they still left him in panic mode afterward until he could confirm for himself that Shinichi was still fine. These usually lead to Kaito making dinner and forcing Shinichi to let him watch him eat every single bite, not that he didn’t do that either way anyway.

This time, though, Kaito was more intrigued than terrified. The woman that was lying on the ground looked as if she had crumpled there rather suddenly, as if she had been suddenly attacked from behind. The blood that was pooling underneath her head supported this idea. 

\---------1412--------

The death was clean- perfect even. And even more perfectly timed. It got the kid detective’s attention immediately just like it needed to. He was drawn to the scene by the scream of the stupid girl’s friend. Now was the proper time for her to act and take him down, she may not get another chance before the idiots that were supposed to come help her came.

She didn’t even understand why the boss decided to send her Snake and Gin. They were from different sectors, and constantly fighting. Gin had even been the one to falsely report that the Kudo kid was dead in the first place. 

The faster she got this taken care of the better- those idiots will be more tiring than helpful.

And she was already exhausted.

\---------1412---------

_ “Brandy, I thought we agreed on no pointless deaths.” _

_ “This wasn't pointless. It was to draw the threat to my area so that I could eliminate-” _

_ “Fine. I'm trusting you for now. But if anything else unexpected happens, you will be the one eliminated.” _

_ “Yes, boss.” _

The line went dead. 

\---------1412---------

His first clue that something was awry was the lack of fingerprints. The weapon (a crossbow Kaito found outside) was completely void of fingerprints, even where the broker and makers would have touched it to sell it to the owner. There was also a lack of the serial number; it had been scratched through- better than a civilian could have done. 

Yes all of these facts left Shinichi without a doubt in the world that someone with more experience than just your common everyday murderers were behind this. Another fact that tipped him off was the small fact that he could swear that he saw a shadow move out of the corner his eye. But it wasn’t just any shadow, it was definitely a sweater or a jacket. With this in mind, his first instinct said that the black org was somehow behind the "tragedy" that had occurred only minutes ago. They were lucky that there was a police station so close by that was able to quickly respond and not let anyone leave the area until the MPDs first division could reach them. However, not even he could come up with anyone there that could have a proper motive or even enough experience to know how to effectively use a crossbow as a murder weapon. It was slightly terrifying, to say the least.

\---------1412--------- 

Kaito still had no idea what to make of the situation. He was slightly frustrated due to the fact that this was supposed to be a vacation for both of them—but it was obviously becoming a working one. Luckily he and Shinichi were quickly ruled out as suspects so they were able to assist the police with the investigation. Officers in general tend to make him nervous, purely because of his nighttime activities. Every time he sees an officer within about 50 feet of him he worries that he didn’t wipe everything down properly or they were able to find a single strand of hair and DNA- identify him. He was eternally grateful that he was quickly ruled out. He knew that the only reason they had truly been ruled out was because they had been able to give themselves alibis through their statements. Apparently their stories had been close enough to count them clear.

He also knew that part of it was the fact that Shinichi had contacts and friends within division one, namely Takagi and Megure. The fact that both were there and “Conan” was able to vouch for Kaito, was one of the true reasons they had been able to go scott free.

He watched as Shinichi went around with the officers and listened in on people’s statements and slowly grew more and more confused. Kaito couldn’t help but wonder just what was wrong with everyone’s statements that was making his darling tantei so confused.

He watched as “Conan” shook his head. Apparently this was a case that not even the great detective of the east could solve.

\---------1412---------

The pieces were wrong. Nothing added up to the point that Shinichi could pick a person as the murderer. It had to be his initial idea of it being a black org member that had discovered the truth. Now what the hell should he do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you notice anything misspelled or awkwardly worded please let me know. Player 2 has been out of the state in a wi-fi-less area and was unable to in depth beta for me and my internet (as I've mentioned on my twitter if you follow it) has been spotty all week at its best, so we haven't had much overlap time to discuss and fix things.


	14. Deception in the First Degree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some shit goes down and then there's some fluff and then more shit goes down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked my texting format a few chapters ago because it returns and the content is _very_ important.

The soft sounds of footsteps cracking on the leafs and sticks in the forest outside is what drew his attention away from the chaos his mind was in due to the “unsolvable” case that had presented itself before him. He slowly made his escape from the place he had taken next to Megure and Takagi, and it was under Kaito’s curious and worried gaze that he stepped into the forest basically undetected.

It was under a woman’s menacing gaze that he was cornered. He happened upon a small clearing that was lined with a fence on one side and attempted to investigate why when he suddenly found himself being held at gunpoint.

“Choose your last words carefully, Kudo.”

“Shouldn’t that be my line, Miss Murderer?”

The woman ‘tsk’ed, “It’s Brandy to you, brat.” She moved to lean against a tree nearby without taking her eyes, or her gun, off of him. Now that he could see her clearly, he startled at the clothes she was wearing. Who in the world wore a black sundress and matching flats at all? Let alone in the middle of March, to a scene where they would be committing murder? He did assume that, in her defence, the black sweater she had on did protect her from the cold somewhat, even if it were still impractical for a murder followed by a romp in the woods.

“So, how did you find out, Miss Brandy?”

“The intel that you were dead was inputted into the system by that Sherry girl shortly after the raid of your house. Considering she was later dubbed a traitor and she disappeared, I figured something was up and decided to investigate. I noticed that your parents still referred to you in the present tense and they would obviously be some of the first to know if your body was found so I did some tracking of suddenly really smart people and found you in the hospital after you got shot at that heist with that phantom thief…”

“Wait… were you that nurse?” His mind drifted to the nurse that had greeted him when he first woke up after the heist before Kaito became his guardian and made him slightly unsettled.

She smirked, “Guilty as charged.”

He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head, “I should have been more careful.”

“Not really. Helped me find you and see if you were still a big enough threat to be worried about. It let me analyze and see the situation from a different angle. Helped me decide that you didn't need to be killed, you needed to be helped. I’ve been watching, waiting for an opening since then.”

Shinichi was confused to say the least, “Wait, so, you're saying-”

“What I’m saying is that I'm sick and tired of being ordered what to do, so I've made an opening for myself. I want to help you, and Sherry.”

\---------1412---------

Kaito watched as his tantei (wait- since when was the smaller his?) returned back from the forest and took his place back beside two detectives. He tugged on Takagi’s arm, and, once he had the other’s attention, gestured him into a private room away from prying ears. Kaito followed them silently into the room, feeling slightly left out of the loop because Shinichi had wandered off almost as soon as they were both in the clear. 

“Shut the door behind you, Kaito.”

Takagi jumped, obviously not having noticed him before.

“Sure thing, tantei~” He closed the door and locked it behind them.

The police detective suddenly looked like he was watching a ping pong match between Kaito and Shinichi, “Wait, hold on. Not many people would be allowed to call Conan that. The only person is-”

“-Kaitou KID,” Kaito interrupted in a copy of Takagi’s voice. 

Kaito could hear the amusement in Shinichi’s voice when he replied, “Let's not overwhelm him now, Kaito. He is my contact in the police that knows everything.”

“Now, tantei, when you say everything-”

“I mean everything from step one, Kaito. He is one of the very few privy to my  _ little  _ situation.”

“Alright. So, what's the plan, Shinichi?” Kaito asked, as he sat down on the barren floor. 

“The plan is to drop the case. Conclude that whomever was the killer somehow escaped. Let the case turn cold.”

Takagi interrupted him, “I can't just do that, Kudo-kun.”

“You can and if you really can't I'll take this up to Megure-keibu. I'm sure he could do it.”

Takagi nodded, “I'll do my best. After that?”

“Get the TMPD out of here. I've got other plans to set into motion.”

Takagi left with a solemn look, he obviously did not quite completely understand the situation. 

Kaito turned back to Shinichi, “So what are the plans we have to get in motion?”

“Here,” He replied as he tossed his phone over to the thief. “The texts to Haibara.”

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _ How's the vacation going, Kudo-kun? _

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** ****  
_ decent.  _ __  
_ wait. NVM got to solve a case _ __  
_ BO is involved  _ _  
_ __ she wants to make a deal

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _ What kind of deal? _

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** ****  
_ a deal for information _ _  
_ _ on the APTX _

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** **  
** _ What's the catch? _

**[To: Haibara Ai** ****  
**From: Edogawa Conan]** ****  
_ ive got to get her off free from this case _ _  
_ _ and help her out of the org.  _

**[From: Haibara Ai** ****  
**To: Edogawa Conan]** ****  
_ … _ __  
_ Take it.  _ __  
_ Agree to it, whatever.  _ __  
_ Have your thief help you get her out and I'll deal with the APTX formula and get you a cure.  _ _  
_ __ This is the best chance we've got so we have to take it while we can. 

The texts stopped there and Kaito looked back up at Shinichi, “I’m in.”

\---------1412---------

Shinichi waved goodbye as the TMPD left with disappointed looks on their faces. He turned back to Kaito to start speaking, but stopped at the look on Kaito’s face.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about, tantei, but we are not planning this whole thing  _ now. _ I, at least, came here for a weekend vacation, and you are welcome to join me,” Kaito said before turning around and stalking off to the bath houses.

Shinichi stood still for the time it took Kaito to almost be out of sight before he quickly dashed up to the man. “Don’t you know anything? You shouldn’t leave a kid alone in a strange place, Kaito- _ niisan _ .”

Kaito looked down at him and ruffled his hair affectionately, “Cheeky brat.”

They both fell silent as they entered the changing rooms, turning away from each other. Shinichi was the first one finished and started to head out into the bath area.

“Shinichi wait!”

He turned and glanced in Kaito’s direction, and suddenly one thought over took the smaller boy: were those muscles even  _ real? _

\---------1412---------

Kaito couldn’t help but stop his tantei when he saw the scars that littered the small body. Just how many times can one kid get shot? Actually, Kaito actually didn’t really want to know the answer to that question, that would just worry him more.

He reached out to Shinichi and started to trace the scars, especially the most recent one that he had gained at his own heist. 

“K-Kaito? What are you doing?”

His hand suddenly jerked back, and he looked at Shinichi’s face, which was contorted into a look of confusion. What was he doing, indeed.

\---------1412---------

“Here.”

Ran looked up as she was tossed a copy of that day’s newspaper (or at least what she assumed was today's). “KID DETECTIVE STUMPED ON CASE, CLAIMS KILLER ESCAPED”

She scrabbled for the paper and read through it quickly before the woman before her could take it. She looked for any statement, a word, something, from her once-crush only to see, at the very end “Edogawa-kun was unavailable for comment.”

“Don’t worry, girl. I made it absolutely certain that he knew where you were and who had you. I’m sure he will come to save you soon.” 

The paper was snatched from her hands, “Come along, Snake, Gin, we have a certain detective to take out.” The door slammed shut behind them, throwing her into darkness once again. 

_ “I’m sorry, Shinichi.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long;;;  
> So who else forgot what I had done to the Ran girl at the end of the "Trouble with Babysitters" chapter? I did. My cousin that didn't know I was the one writing this texted me and told me _about_ this fic and how frustrated she was with the fact I did that and then hadn't touched on it at all. So I told her that I had written it and she proceeded to yell at me until I promised to include something in this chapter (when I had already written most of it;;). 
> 
> **IMPORTANT NOTE:**  
>  It is very likely that this fic will not be updated until early June as finals and exams and whatnot are upon me because I'm now in the last month of school until summer break. So I'm going to call it a semi-hiatus? Just because I think grades are a little more important than this. Sorry to anyone extremely upset about this. I'll do my best to do something before then.


	15. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I have decided to end the hiatus I've been on and freaking write  
> they leave the hot springs followed by angst

Shinichi had always loved a nice summer rain. The smell, the feeling of it hitting his skin. It was comforting. No one had ever really commented on his tendency to “forget” an umbrella or rain coat on a day when one was expected. 

Until, of course, Kaito noticed this habit. It had been fairly simple the first time he had found out- a soft rain had been falling for hours and Shinichi was sick of being stuck inside, so he had run off to go sit in the park for a while. Kaito had found him almost an hour later, when he was soaked to the bone with rain water, but his mind was much clearer. Kaito had brought him a small blue umbrella to use on the walk home. He didn’t use it, nor did Kaito force him to. The only thing his was forced to do was take a shower, which he complied to doing easily. 

It was never really brought up again. 

Well, that was, before the dream.

Shinichi had fallen asleep on the way back from their mini-vacation, and it was definitely not a restful one.

The dream started out fairly normally, it seemed to be a KID heist, another chance for the “KID killer” to earn his name, but it quickly took a turn for the worst.

They made it to the roof, as usual, but then he heard rustling, much like he did before- the time that KID’s section of the Black Organization attempted to kill him off.

He went to move and take the bullet himself, to say something. But he couldn't. He was forced to watch as the bullet made impact with Kaito’s chest and the force sent the young adult backward off the side of the roof. 

“Kaito!”

He was falling.

Falling. 

_ Falling.  _

In that moment, as soon as he made the realization that Kaito was  _ dead _ because of this, was when he jerked awake to the pelting of water against the windshield and Kaito looking at him. He had pulled off to the side of the road at some point and looked extremely worried. 

“Shinichi, are you okay?”

“Um,” he hesitated, “yeah. I'm good. I think.”

“Is-is it the rain, Shinichi?”

Shinichi opened the car door, “Maybe it is, I'm not sure.”

He stepped out, letting the rain slowly soak him. He began to step out further, to let the rain calm him. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Kaito’s hand on his shoulder. He turned back. Kaito was leaned over the center console to reach out for him. 

“Don't go too far, we still need to get back to Ekoda.”

Shinichi nodded once before wandering, but he couldn’t bring himself to get out of sight of the car. He couldn’t help but notice that Kaito was truly worried every time that something happened to him, so he didn’t want to leave the safety that Kaito was offering him so freely. 

But Shinichi also couldn’t forget that the Brandy woman had told him that Ran, sweet Ran, that only got mad at him because he had hidden his identity from them for so long when she straight up asked him one time, was in the organization’s clutches. 

Luckily, her father was apparently released fairly soon after they were captured in the first place and had made up the story that Ran had gone to America to join Shinichi for awhile. The organization didn’t want to risk the repercussions of a semi-public figure suddenly disappearing without trace. Which was reasonable, he guessed. It kept people from trying to figure out where he went and finding their base. He had struggled to keep himself from telling both Haibara and Kaito about the situation that Ran had found herself in because of what he knew about his identity.

Thinking the situation over had calmed him dramatically and he slowly made his way back to the car where Kaito had magically come up with some towels to protect the precious seat of his car from the rainwater that Shinichi would have “tainted” it with. 

They were then quickly continuing their journey back to Kaito’s house. When they arrived they quickly descended into the KID cave to start planning what they had to do for this, what they hoped to be, the final heist that the two would have anything to do with. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, originally this fic was going to have 20 real chapters. If you'll notice, the relationship tags have been removed because i just real wasn't feeling it and it was getting real forced. Player 2 agreed with me so I just stopped trying. Now this is getting 4 more (fairly short) chapters and no epilogue because I've kind of hit a brick wall. But never fear! There is another, more relationship based, fic on the horizon. Just stick with me just a little longer and this mess will be over.  
> To anyone upset that KaiShin is no longer the final goal:  
> I'm sorry, but I'm sure you'd be a lot more upset if I just continued to force in the relationship as I have been. I'm not going to go back and take anything out, the ending goal has just changed, and for the better in my opinion.


	16. The Last Note

They spent the better part of the next 72 hours holed up in the KID cave planning for the invasion of the organization’s base. Kaito had run out and gotten the blueprint files that Brandy had given Shinichi printed out so they could plan out what they are doing direction wise. The areas that contained things that they needed to collect were marked with stars for them by Brandy for some unknown reason. 

Kaito had quickly asked why two places were marked. This was why Shinichi was suddenly forced to explain what exactly was going on in the background: Ran. 

Shinichi struggled through what he had to speak about and he struggled to not cry as he explained that the woman that used to be his best friend had been kidnapped because he had not been careful enough at hiding his identity like the professor and Haibara had insisted he do so many times. 

The boys had yet another heart to heart before Shinichi could bring himself to focus back on the impending heist that would give him the ability to fix his mistakes. 

“So, Shinichi?”

“Yeah, Kaito?”

“Where is the building and how do we do the notice?”

“We can just deliver the note to the police as per normal. They have enough moles in the government, they’ll get it.”

“Right, okay. And how do you know this?”

“Um, I’ve been trying to track them down and take them out for like 5 years.”

“Right, I knew that didn’t I.”

“Yes, yes you did.”

“That was a rhetorical question.”

\---------1412---------

After much debate they finally decided on a heist note that made sense. They had to make it encompass everything that they were planning to do during their time at the organization’s base. Kaito refused to have it just straight  _ say _ what they were doing, he insisted that it had to be a riddle that was  _ somewhat _ challenging to those that didn’t need to understand it. So, begrudgingly, Shinichi allowed Kaito almost free reign with the note. 

When Kaito finally showed him the note he had put together, Shinichi rubbed his temples, already waiting to here the utter fanatical searching of the note for clues that was sure to happen in the Nakamori household over the next few days. He kind of felt bad for Aoko for being caught up in the middle of their game with the police and the organization.

\---------1412---------

_ The Princess in the tower, shall be free once more. _

_ A dove with mighty power, and a silver bullet to restore, _

_ Shall fend off the crows, and steal their sinister brew, _

_ All of this will happen on a night which is truly new. _

_ -KID [](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AKaito_Kid_signature.svg) _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! just one more chapter (cause I realized what i was going to make like 3 chapters was going to be like just over a 1,000 words which was the average length of just one chapter throughout this entire fic.) I do plan to have an actual KaiShin fic after this one, I've already done most of the planning for it and I started writing the prologue for it yesterday and I'm veryyyyy excited.
> 
> The last chapter may take awhile to be completed and posted because I start back at school in less than a week and on top of that I'm in the process of moving. Sadly, making sure my family is packed and out of our house, and has a place to live, by the time we close on everything on August 18th takes a priority over writing. As does school work now that I have to start worrying about applying to colleges and the like so I can be assured financial aid.
> 
> Anyway, please comment if you spot anything wrong, as usual. Have a nice day/afternoon/evening/night/whatever!


	17. The End of the World as We Know it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it. Time to save Ran and take down the org. Will our heros manage to survive the journey?  
> Spoiler: of course they do I cant kill off my boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it! in almost a year I have produced almost 41 pages in google docs of this hell, and its finally over.  
> Hang on 'til the end-- I've got some announcements about the ending and where I'm going from here.

“Otou-san?”

“What is it Aoko?”

“Isn’t the next KID heist just a few days away?”

Shinichi and Kaito shared a glance across the table, before Kaito dared to break the silence between father and daughter. “Aoko, the police do have some things they can’t share with their families sometimes.”

Nakamori-keibu cleared his throat before speaking, “The police have most of the information we have demised about the next heist under strict classification. I don’t even have access to most of it.”

Shinichi shared another look with Kaito. The organization understood the note and locked down any and all information that could be found out to reveal their existence. They both seriously suspected that no one other than a ‘special committee’ that was made up of undercover org members had any clue as to the true place and target of the heist.

Aoko looked at her father in confusion, “But, you’re the head of the KID task-force! You of all people should have access to all of the information!”

“They’ve determined that the note must have been sent by an imposter; therefore, I have no jurisdiction.”

He quickly changed the subject and it was clear that the topic was no longer welcome.

\---------1412---------

By the time the heist date had rolled around, they had finally finished planning. Of course, it had involved a few days doing nothing but planning the best routes to their agreed upon section of the heist.

It had taken awhile to determine who would save Ran and who would go get the information off of the computer for Haibara to create the cure for the APTX. This dilemma was quickly answered for them when Haibara ended the phone call Shinichi placed to get passwords with “If you even _dare_ to share my passwords with that _damn_ thief you might just find yourself dead instead of a teenager.”

Being separated, especially with one of them having the appearance a child, put them both slightly on edge, but the necessity to split up to get the heist over faster ended up over powering the nerves. Actually, it wasn’t really a heist, it was more of an _infiltration mission._ Yeah, Shinichi liked that description better.

Due to the fact that they were _trying_ to avoid standing out, Shinichi had convinced Kaito that he needed to wear his pre-heist get-up that he wore when he confronted him before his ‘teleportation’ act. It hadn’t really taken that much effort to achieve.

Their arrival to the organization’s warehouse was silent, almost eerily so.

“Is your mic intact?”

Shinichi turned to Kaito, “Should be. You checked it a good 5 times before we left and at least another 3 on the way here.”

Kaito shook his head, “Never too many checks on equipment. Let me check it again before we go in.”

“You should check your own too. Making sure mine is hidden and intact is useless if I can’t contact you.”

“Right, just remember to keep an eye out for traps.”

“Kaito, we’ve been over this a million times, I’ve been looking out for traps and the like since I was 6 the first time.”

\---------1412---------

Kaito stuck close to the wall as he headed down the hall that held the cells where Ran was being kept. The placed traps to catch them were obvious, which made him glad that Shinichi had taken what was probably the less guarded route to the lab where the formula would be. Thankfully the traps _were_ obvious, and, therefore, easy to get around without tripping them

It was only a few seconds after he entered the main room that he located the cell that the princess was in. It was easy because it was the only one that had any movement.

“Mouri-san?”

A scared voice answered him, “W-who are you?”

A wicked grin passed across Kaito’s face before quickly fading, “Well, princess. I guess you could consider me your knight in shining armor.”

He made quick work of the locks on the cell before entering and helping Ran to her feet.

“Shinichi?”

“Close, he took the other half of this heist.”

“KID?”

“Bingo! Now, we better get going before the dragons come back, princess.”

\---------1412---------

Shinichi cursed as he, once again, mis-inputted a password.

Getting to the right computer had been easy. Putting the passwords in? Not so much.

Of course, for some reason, the computer room was rigged so that every time a password was wrong, it filled up with slightly more water. Luckily, all the electrical plugs and CPU’s were raised (along with the chairs), but at the point he was currently at, he would have to swim to get out of the room. Thank the lord that Shinichi had thought to bring a waterproof bag to hold the flash drive just in case.

Once he finally got through all the password protections and to the correct folder, he realized just how many different versions of the APTX had been tested. He checked his sheet for which ones Haibara said she needed. Out of the about 60 versions, she needed from 40 foreword.

As he set the latest 20+ to copy over, he decided to explore the rest of the set up in the room. It seemed to be a fairly standard tech-based science lab. There were very little areas that didn’t have _something_ going on. He was pretty sure that there was even a chemical reaction being monitored by some computers. How advanced was the technology here?

He heard the computer ding signaling it was done copying the formulas. He quickly moved over over to remove the flash drive and shut down the computer. They wouldn’t know he was here as long as possible.

Now it was time to meet back up with Kaito and, hopefully, Ran.

\---------1412---------

The three were regrouping and deciding the best way back to Beika to return Ran home when they were rudely interrupted.

“How-how could you!”

They all turned to see a rather ragged-looking Brandy.

“You-you didn’t trip a single trap I had set! You avoided everyone that I had guarding the building!”

Shinichi was suddenly very happy he had made a call to the TMPD with a complaint about suspicious figures in the area before they entered the building when Brandy suddenly pulled a gun on them.

“If you can’t be taken out by traps, I’ll just take you out myself!”

The first bullet was fired straight for Shinichi’s head as the police pulled to a stop behind Brandy, facing the main trio. Shinichi dropped to the ground to avoid the bullet and it just barely missed him.

He hated seeing scenes like this because they were so cliche. The villains getting taken away because their leader felt the need to monologue to the ‘hero.’ But, that’s exactly what happened. And, for the first time in a long time, Kaito and Shinichi didn’t have to worry about the Black Organization breathing down their backs.

\---------1412---------

“You’re sure this is the one?” Shinichi asked Haibara as he stared at the pill he had been handed.

“I spent 3 months on the thing, it better work.”

“Right…” Kaito added in. “I’m sure that this is completely not illegal and not considered making drugs.”

“Oh shut up!” Shinichi and Haibara yelled at the thief at the same time.

“Just take the damn pill, Kudo-kun.”

“I’m trying, Haibara!”

Shinichi was pushed into the bathroom with clothes that were his size.

When he walked back out he was staring back down at himself with something akin to glee. He was so surprised that it worked. Now he just had to stay at the professor’s for a few days to assure that the body was stable and he wasn't going to suddenly revert back to Conan.

“I think we can safely announce that Conan moved back to America to be with his parents, don’t you think so, Meitantei?”

“For now, at least, yes. I think we can.”

“You’re still going to assist me on heists, right? I mean, your deduction capabilities are unmatched and-”

“I thought we were done with heists for good, KID.”

“Well, I mean, KID can’t just disappear.”

“Sure Kaito. I’ll always just be a phone call away.”

“Thanks, Shinichi.”

“Anytime, Kaito.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you imagine that the original copy of this chapter was only 600 words with zero dialogue?  
> Anyway... You're homeless, sick, writer friend known as Player 1 managed to get their act together to finish, but that doesn't mean this story is over. The ending is left very broad on purpose, mainly cause I don't think I can leave this version of my dorks completely alone, so you may get some one-shots in the future, just keep an eye out. So follow our profile! Player 2 is trying to finish up Love's Light so they can work on their next idea, and my next fic will start being posted tomorrow!
> 
> Speaking of, I'm so excited for you to read my next fic. I've had it in progress since January and let Player 2 know about it and see my planning sheet since about May, after they literally guessed the main plot in a text conversion we had one night. I told them my plan and got a "HYPE" back in response, so if that helps you decide if you want to read it. It will also be a for real kaishin instead of the literal "burn so slow the author forgot to feed the fire and it died."
> 
> Okay, I'll hopefully talk to you later! Thanks for sticking around 'til the end. 
> 
> You can always find me on my tumblr and twitter which have been linked at the end of the chapters forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Harass me to write at my [tumblr.](https://hiddentruths50136820.tumblr.com)
> 
> I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/WotW_P1) now too!


End file.
